Golf: Arjun Atwal way down at 130th in Pebble Beach Pro-AM; Kitayama leads

Pebble Beach (USA), Feb 4 (SocialNews.XYZ) India's Arjun Atwal had another tough day in extremely windy conditions as he shot a 3-over 75 at Spyglass Hill Golf Course in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

With rounds of 73-75, the 49-year-old Atal is now 4-over and way down in 130th place on the leader board at the PGA Tour event.

Kurt Kitayama moved into sole lead after opening with 10 straight pars and then had three birdies against one bogey for a 2-under 70 at Pebble Beach.

Kitayama was at 9-under 134 and led by one shot over Keith Mitchell, Brandon Wu, Joseph Bramlett and Hank Lebioda.

The weather forecast on the Monterey Peninsula looks like it is going to be tough for the next two days also. Players play three different courses on the first three days playing Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Monterrey before coming back to Pebble Beach Links for the final round.

In his last start on the PGA Tour, Kitayama was second at the CJ CUP in South Carolina at Congaree after being tied for the lead going into the weekend with Jon Rahm. He also finished runner-up to Rahm in Mexico last year, and to Xander Schauffele in the Genesis Scottish Open.

This is the second time in his career that Kitayama holds a 36-hole lead/co-lead and the fourth time after any round. Kitayama is one of two players with multiple 36-hole leads/co-leads on Tour this season (first came at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina). Four of the five players at T2 or better have not won on the PGA TOUR (Kitayama, Brandon Wu, Joseph Bramlett and Hank Lebioda).

Meanwhile, Japan's Satoshi Kodaira shot a 68 featuring three closing birdies at Spyglass Hill for T6, two off the lead. Won his first PGA TOUR title at the 2018 RBC Heritage but has not recorded a top-10 on TOUR since then.

Source: IANS